


Brother’s Keeper

by portlandborn



Category: Bones (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 06:52:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19079767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/portlandborn/pseuds/portlandborn
Summary: Hodgins’ brother Jeffrey has been murdered to get to him. Booth and Bones are doing their best to help he and Angela, but as they investigate their world will be rocked as secrets are revealed





	1. Chapter 1

ANGELA AND HODGINS

His wheels were caught on something, but he wasn’t sure what, he couldn’t see what it was from his current position in his wheelchair. Despite his considerable upper body strength, his wheelchair wouldn’t budge from the current position. Hodgins finally slammed his fists down on the arms of his chair, “Ange! I’m sorry, but my damn wheelchair is stuck again.”

His wife entered the workroom in their large apartment, “I told you, you don’t have to feel bad, ever for needing help.”

Hodgins could only shrug, “yeah, well two years in this thing and I don’t think I’ll ever not be independent.”

Angela knelt down and laughed as she unhooked his wheelchair, “It was the chain from Jefferson’s little bike that Michael Vincent took apart trying to make an invention.”

Hodgins laughed, “okay, that’s my fault. I was the one who pointed out that many useful items for inventions are located throughout the house.”

Angela nodded, “I know it’s your fault, it’s why I laughed.” She looked around her husband’s workspace and realized he was working on something entirely new.

“What are you working on now?”

Hodgins face turned a light shade of red, “well, I can’t really work on this at the lab, because I don’t want to share credit, but…”

Angela’s eyes narrowed, “this is that new type of explosive you were talking about with Wendell.”

Hodgins stammered for a few seconds before nodding, “yeah, I am. It’s not dangerous here, I swear, it’s so localized and the reaction is small that it’s perfect for an infinite number of possibilities.”

Angela bent down and poked him in the chest, “like pissing off your wife and endangering your two young sons?”

“Well, yes, those are currently very real possibilities, but Ange, if I can just minimize the explosion and heat by a fraction, I might be on to a billion-dollar idea.”

“Dead men can’t spend money Hodgins, remember that.” She then kissed him, smiled and left him alone again in his workspace. He was about to take down some chemicals from his shelf when he heard the doorbell, followed by shrieking from his two sons.

“Hodgins, get out here. It’s Booth.”

His curiosity more than getting the better of him, he wheeled out to living room where Booth stood up to greet him.

“Bug boy, I need a moment in private, with you and Angela, no offense to Michael Vincent.”

Hodgins quickly turned his chair, “Michael Vincent, go upstairs see how fast you can put back together antique clock you took apart yesterday.”

Michael Vincent’s eyes went wide, and he immediately darted upstairs. Angela shook her head, “I told him you already knew about that, but he was hoping you didn’t.”

Hodgins smiled, “I took that same clock apart when I was younger. Okay Booth, what’s so serious that you come to our house and not the Jeffersonian?”

Booth sighed, then looked between Angela and Hodgins a few times before speaking, “it’s not good. I was called out with Bones to check on a corpse. It was in a well on a big farm in Maryland.” Hodgins and Angela exchanged anxious looks as they waited for the news of whoever it was, “it’s your brother.”

“My brother? I just saw him last week.” Angela walked next him and sat on his lap, laying her head on his shoulder. “It was murder, wasn’t it? It had to be, or you wouldn’t be involved, officially anyways.”

“His ID was in his pocket, but there are signs of blunt force trauma on his head and several broken bones elsewhere on his body.”

“Oh my god,” Angela said muffled into her husband’s shoulder.

Booth swallowed as he looked at his friends, Hodgins knew the look, “okay Booth, spill it man. What else is wrong? You can’t stonewall a diehard conspiracy theorist.”

“Normally I’d make fun of you, but you’re not wrong Bug Boy. There was a note with Jeffrey’s body. As soon as we ID’d the body, we knew it was for you.” Booth pulled his phone out of his picket and quickly unlocked it and showed him the picture, it was a piece of paper, “Brother’s Keeper, be careful. I’m coming for you.” At the bottom of the note was a sequence of numbers and letters. Booth noticed Hodgins’ reaction as he read it.

“That sequence means something. What is it?”

Hodgins swallowed hard as he fought back tears for the first time, he had barely known Jeffrey in reality, but he was his brother and he loved him because no one else truly had. “That is the account number for the money used for Jeffrey’s care.”

Booth rubbed his neck, he was tired, and he hated delivering bad news to anyone, but it was infinitely worse when it was a close friend, “why would anyone care about that?”

Hodgins looked quickly at Angela then back to Booth. “It was just shy of ten million dollars. I set it up for his care and then as a trust to be used for people who needed care but didn’t have any funds. As far as I knew, Angie, myself, and our financial lawyer were the only ones to know about it.”

Booth started typing on his phone, “what’s the name?”

Hodgins rubbed his face, “her name was Sheila Dawkins.”

Booth typed in the name then looked up puzzled, “was?”

“Um, yeah. She died a few months ago, we were told it was a car accident.”

Booth’s thumbs typed with greater fury, “that can’t be a coincidence. I’ll look into it immediately.”

“We’ve made no short of enemies in our investigations, we all know that, but who in the hell would know about my brother and hurt him?”

Angela rubbed his shoulders with a worried look on her face, “We deal with psychos all the time, sadly, it could totally be any number of people. If Zach were here, he could do the math.”

Hodgins offered up a sad grin, “yeah, he could. Booth, I know everyone wants to treat me with kid gloves since I’m in a wheelchair, but I need to be involved with this. When it was your brother, you went undercover and did everything you could to bring them to justice.”

Booth stiffened, his color drained his lips began to form a scowl, Angela quickly noticed, “Booth, he’s not trying to piss you off, he’s mourning his brother and wants justice, the same as you.”

Booth closed his eyes for a split second to calm his anger, “sorry, my temper’s still not where it should be. Personal stuff always pushes me over, which Bones is always quick to point out is ironic since I pry into personal lives for a living.”

Hodgins shook his head, “don’t worry about it man, this shit, it’s real. My family, other than Jeffrey, they were part of the problem, I never felt bad spilling crap about them, but my kids, I share very little. They’re my world, you protected your brother his entire life, I only protected Jeffrey while I knew about him.”

Booth sighed, “Hodgins, I didn’t mean to…shit, I’m not coming off good here. Brothers are obviously a touchy subject, I should be more understanding, I’m sorry about your brother. You sacrificed for him to care for him when a lot of people wouldn’t have, I get that, obviously. We’ll find the person responsible.”

BONES AND BOOTH

As he walked in the door to the house, Hank immediately wrapped himself around Booth’s leg, “daddy!”

Booth smiled and picked up his son, “Hank! You’re getting too big. You’re going knock me down soon.”

“Actually, based on his body mass and top speed, that’s an unlikely probability.” Bones was on the couch staring at pictures of Jeffrey Hodgins’ remains.

“Hello to you too Bones, and that was me talking to our son, who’s four years old. I don’t do math and probabilities.”

Bones looked up from her laptop, “I disagree. You do basic mathematical computations daily to track down suspects and find murderers.”

Booth sighed and rolled his eyes, “I’ve known you for over fifteen years and yet you still take everything I say so damn literal.”

Bones smiled crookedly and fondly, “sorry, my brain is conditioned for that.”

Booth kissed her and smiled, “yeah, I’m aware.”

Bones set her laptop down, “how did Hodgins take the unfortunate news about his brother?”

Booth sat down in his favorite recliner and stretched out, “better than I would have. I got touchy when he made a comment about if I was upset when my brother was murdered.”

Bones nodded, “that is fair Booth, as humans we react based on our emotions and abilities but also on what we see from others and deem as acceptable behaviors.”

“I understand that, I do. It’s just, you know me Bones, personal stuff is personal, yet for a living, I delve into other people’s personal lives, many times because something terrible happened to a loved one, and I get pissed if they are defensive or try to hide things.”

“You are complex Booth, most human beings are. You are good at your job, yet years of being an operative and the painful experiences you have had in life made you guarded about your private life.”

Booth groaned, “again, I’m aware. It just didn’t help the situation when talking to bug boy today. Did you find anything by looking at the pictures?”

“I saw and observed many things, but none yet that can help me determine who it was.”

“Did any of the squints determine cause of death?”

Bones smiled, “my new intern, Mr. Lopez was able to sift through the injuries and categorize the perimortem and postmortem injuries. He was able to determine and I concur with his findings, that Jeffrey Hodgins’s cause of death was a crushed larynx by blunt force trauma. It appears that the murder weapon was a rounded instrument, roughly the size a police nightstick or baton, but we will need to run further tests to determine the exact weapon. It does appear that the victim was tortured before his death, four phalanges were broken, three ribs were cracked, and there was wide spread bruising on the body.”

Booth sat up straight, “Bones, it’s possible he wasn’t tortured, he was mentally ill and was known to have severe reactions to change, so I’m guessing kidnapping didn’t sit well with him. If he was hurt, I’m thinking he gave nearly as good as he got, other than the murder part.”

“I doubt however that the injured assailants and murderers would go to the hospital.”

“Maybe, listen, Bones, I need you and the squints to look at his injuries and figure out what damage Jeffrey would have inflicted on his attacker or attackers. I’m fairly certain that one man couldn’t handle Jeffrey.”

“Base on what evidence? It sounds like pure conjecture to me.”

Booth shot Bones a sideways glance, rolling his eyes again, “Bones, I know this stuff. It’s what I do. What I also know is that an attacker struggles with a regular sized man in normal kidnapping cases, with a man who is known to have physical bouts of rage, two or three would be nearly impossible.” Booth picked up his phone and dialed a number from his contacts list, “Michaels, Booth. Have the local detectives scour the area to see if there were any reports or eyewitnesses to a struggle. Jeffrey Hodgins would not have gone quietly, and all evidence points to a massive struggle. This could help us narrow the search. Got it. Thanks.”

“Do you think Hodgins will miss his brother? They didn’t have a close relationship.”

Booth sank back into the chair again, “it’s complicated Bones. He didn’t know Jeffrey well, but he knew he was his brother, he sacrificed for him, he cared for him. He might not have known him or understood him like he wanted to, but he’ll miss him.”

“Like you with Jared?” Bones’ face was serious and without a trace of malice, Booth took a deep breath to fight back his normal readily loaded quips and responses when pressed about his brother.

“I imagine it’s very similar Bones, very similar. I was mad at Jared for his decisions, but I loved him. Hodgins wasn’t mad at Jeffrey, but he couldn’t pretend to understand him, no one could.”

ANGELA AND HODGINS

Early in the evening, Angela left their bedroom when she heard the elevator bell on the second floor, she came out and faced the elevator as the doors opened and an angry Hodgins was exiting.

“Okay, what’s eating you? I know you’re sad and angry about Jeffrey, but this, this is something else.”

“It’s nothing.” He tried to wheel past her, but she stretched out both arms and firmly held him back, using all her strength to do so.

Angela’s eyes began to brim with tears, “no Hodgins. Don’t do this to me, not again.”

Hodgins looked up, “do what?”

“Like you did after you were first paralyzed, don’t shut me out. I can’t do that again. It killed me, I wanted to help you, but you were so angry at me and refused to let me in, you can’t do that again.”

Hodgins’ left arm quickly reached up to her arm and he gently pulled her down until she was sitting on his lap, her sobs soon became louder and nearly inconsolable. “I’m sorry Angie, so sorry. This isn’t about you.”

Angela lifted her head, her brown eyes with tears flowing out stared eye to eye with his intense blue eyes, “that’s bullshit, and you know it Hodgins. It may not be a reaction to anything I’ve done, but it’s still about me, it affects me, it affects our family. Last time you wanted a divorce and to just leave Michael Vincent and I…” Her sobs picked up steam again, Hodgins nestled his face into her shoulders, feeling worse than ever for making the one person always on his side feel like crap.

“Angie, look, this is different. I’m sorry. I’m just trying to focus on who would do this. It’s not like when…” He felt his mouth go dry, his emotions were getting the best of him again, “look, this, it’s not easy. I was always active Angie, always. I climbed mountains, I dove, I sailed, I could look out for people, for my people, my family…”

Angela placed her finger lovingly on his lips, “stop it, you still look out for us. You always looked out for Jeffery and made sure his life was comfortable and happy.”

“But it wasn’t enough, it wasn’t close to good enough, he ended up dead, probably tortured, and I can’t go down in that well like I would have before. I can’t do things like I did before.”

Kissing his cheek slowly and softly, she ran her fingers through the curls of his hair, “for most people, that would be the end of the story, but you’re you Hodgins. You make things, when things break, you create a new surface, so they won’t break again, when someone drained your fortune, you made a new one. No one has ever stopped you, from anything.”

“It’s not that simple. I’m scared. What if this person who left us the note and killed Jeffrey is like the Gravedigger? I almost died there, I still have the occasional nightmare about that.”

“I know. Look, this is uncomfortable, but the last time, you shut me out and I was so desperate for loving attention…”

“I know, I know. God, believe me, I still have nightmares about what I did to you too. I love you, I’m just pissed off that there’s yet another fucking whack-job out there who is using my family as a plaything. I’m not angry at you, I’m angry that I can’t do what I want to right now, but I’ll get over it.”

Angela sighed, “that’s how it started before Hodgins, with you feeling a little sorry for yourself, then the anger, then rage and shutting out everyone who loves you.”

“I know, but I won’t do that again. I’ve been better, haven’t I?” His eyes betrayed the worry he felt, the worry he had never let go of, his fears of not being able to keep his wife happy and his family together.

Angela remained silent for a moment before kissing his neck, her hands gently caressing his face, “you have been amazing. I tell you that, like all the time.”

“This is different Angie, this isn’t about me doing what I need to around the house, this is me losing you because…”

Several tears rolled down Angela’s cheeks, “you will never lose me. When you got paralyzed, you were angry and I was hurt, what almost happened then, it could never…”

Hodgins interrupted her, “I thought I’d never be paralyzed, I thought that Jeffrey would be never be murdered to get at me…”

Angela held Hodgins’ face with both hands, “those are different, I can’t control those things, but I can control me, and I know you will never lose me. Okay?”

Hodgins took a deep breath, “Okay. You know that this isn’t about me trusting you, it’s about me worrying about me, about our family.”

Angela shook her head, “you have to trust yourself and me, we have faced a lot of challenges, and yet here we are. Brennan will be working on this, Booth is on this, and then with us as well, we will catch the person responsible.”

BONES AND BOOTH

Booth was clearing the table after dinner and Bones was reading with Hank and keeping on eye on Christine and her homework when Booth’s phone rang.

“Michaels, you know it’s Sunday and I’m home with my family….No shit? Tell them to take it their now and I’m sorry for giving you grief, you’re the man, or woman, sorry. I’ll be right there.”

Bones walked over to Booth, “it must be a big lead if you’re leaving on a Sunday evening.”

Booth ushered her quickly out of the room and out of range of their children, “a security guard at a bank a mile from the facility where Jeffrey lived reported a man matching Jeffrey’s appearance fighting against three men. Two Caucasians and a Black man, all big, all armed. He called it in, but when the police came out they didn’t find anything and the van that was reported being used was found last night abandoned at the airport, it’s being brought in to your lab tonight.”

“Do you want me to go there now? I have a feeling Hodgins might show up wanting to investigate, he does run the lab now.”

Booth grinned, “you have a feeling? Where’s your evidence Bones?”

Bones poked him playfully, “my evidence, Booth, is in my years of knowing and interacting with Hodgins.”

“If you want to go in, that’s fine, but can we find someone to watch the kids?”

Bones grinned and picked up her phone, “Aubrey, Temprance, would you mind doing Booth and I a favor? Hodgins’ brother Jeffrey was murdered, and we need someone to watch Christine and Hank so we can solve this. Thank you so much, Booth has a reserve of frozen stakes in the garage freezer, help yourself to as many as you like, and his German Beer.”

“Bones! I’m glad Aubrey’s watching them, but giving him my steaks and beer?”

BONES AND HODGINS

Bones swiped her card as she walked up on the platform lab, Hodgins was seated in his wheelchair facing his brother’s corpse with headphones on and loud angry music emanating from them. Bones tapped him gently on the shoulder as he slightly jumped.

“Dr. B, I didn’t see you. Thanks for coming in, it means a lot to me that you’re on the case so quickly.”

Bones leaned down and hugged him quickly, and awkwardly, “Hodgins, you and your family are Booth’s and my family. Of course I’m here. How are you? I hope that’s not too invasive a question to ask at this moment.”

“No, you’re fine. I’m pretty messed up. I have so many conflicting feelings about Jeffrey. I loved him as much as I could, but I only knew him for a few years and was never allowed to truly bond with him when we were kids. My parents didn’t spare me, they robbed me of a chance to help him, to be part of his life.”

“Anthropologically speaking, that was quite normal behavior up until the late seventies early eighties throughout the world and even here. Mentally ill children were often hidden away and kept out of sight, especially in families where such things might blemish a reputation or cause a scandal.”

Hodgins nodded, trying his best to hold back the anger he felt at the situation, “yeah, right now, I feel anger towards whoever is responsible, but I also have a lot of anger towards my parents.”

“That is understandable, you are a kind, loving individual who values family and forthrightness.”

“I guess you’re right. I loved my parents because they were my parents, but who they were as people, I’ve struggle with that my entire adult life.”

Bones stared awkwardly for a second, unsure how to proceed, “I’ve never heard you speak about your parents much, only to say they were wealthy.”

Hodgins delved back into his work, “yeah, see. I feel bad criticizing them a lot because they set me up for life, I could study the things I loved and get three doctorates because they had money and then I had money, but they were the type of wealthy people that Booth hates, hell, that I hate. I just understand the world better because I came from that world.”

Bones stood still momentarily, “Is it possible someone from that world is striking back at you?”

Hodgins shook his head as he continued to work, “no. I wish it was that easy. The wealthy families I knew wouldn’t bother with someone like Jeffrey except as blackmail, but this, this is someone who has observed me and knew it would anger me and get me into action.”

Bones considered his statement, then began her inspection of the body. “We’ll need Dr. Ibarra to finish her examination before I can do a full examination myself.”

“She already called, I don’t even know who told her about it, but she’s on her way. Her wife was out of town for a conference, so she had to find a sitter for David.”

Hodgins’ wheeled his chair to the lift, the machine whirred as he was lowered to the floor, he exited and entered his office. On his lap was a fiber from the corpse of his brother, he stared at it, there was something familiar about it. He carefully lifted it out of the glass container and placed it in the mass spectrometer, the machine made the sounds that normally made Hodgins happy, but this was all wrong. The machine would give him clues to who murdered his brother, to the person or people that wanted to do him harm.

He was deep in thought about the few interactions he had with his brother during the few years he knew he existed when he heard the familiar sound from the machine telling him it was finished. He read the report and snapped his fingers as he picked up his phone.

“Booth. No, ,man, no worries. Listen, I ran a fiber from the body, it was out of place and looked familiar. It was polyester blend and had a blue dye used by only carpet manufacturer, the same one that makes the carpet for your building. It looked familiar because I ran a sample twelve years ago in a case where an agent was killed by another agent, the only building in the D.C. area with the same carpet is yours. No, I’m positive. You’re right, it doesn’t mean it was an agent, but it does mean they were there and in contact with them. Thanks, let me know when you hear back.”

“What did you discover?” Hodgins jumped a bit when Bones spoke as he had not seen her enter his office, “damn Dr. B, you made me jump. The fiber on Jeffrey’s body was carpet fiber from Booth’s building.”

“What did Booth say? I would imagine he was defensive.”

“Oh yeah, but then he quickly got over it and is having Michaels look for footage to see if three agents left the building together the night of Jeffrey’s abduction.”

Bones left soon and Hodgins was looking at the soil samples he had taken when his phone rang, “what do you have Booth? No fucking way. Yeah, she’s on the platform, I’ll let her know. You’re positive? It can’t be coincidence? I don’t think so either, you’re sure it was Aubrey?”

“What was Aubrey?” 

Hodgins jumped again in his wheelchair, “Dr. B, you’re killing me tonight. Booth says the night that Jeffrey was abducted and witnessed in a struggle, Aubrey left the Hoover building with two men, another Caucasian and Black agent. He showed the footage to the security guard, the other two men were definitely the ones who were there, he was unsure about Aubrey because of the angle at which he saw him.”

“It can’t be Aubrey, he’s proven himself…”

Hodgins interrupted, “I know, but Booth said that trust means nothing, especially with all we’ve experienced in the past few years.”

Bones sat down, still shocked, “Aubrey’s watching Christine and Hank right now.”

Hodgins wheeled himself so he was next to her, “I don’t think it’s him, it has to be coincidence, it has to be.”

Bones shook her head, “in our experience and through our data, coincidence normally doesn’t exist.” Hodgins could only nod, his face fearful of what might be uncovered.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The plot thickens, Aubrey’s revelations cast a shadow of doubt over the FBI and they find more questions then answers.

BOOTH AND AUBREY

“Uncle James, you didn’t read that correctly.” Aubrey rolled his eyes and smiled as Christine had yet again corrected him as he read to her and Hank from one of their mother’s non-fiction books.

“Sorry again Christine. Is there any more of those cheese crackers left?”

Hank laughed, “no! You ate them!”

The front door suddenly opened with a bang, before Christine or Hank could even shout daddy, Booth smiled as much as he could and pointed to the hallway, “Hank and Christine, Daddy will come say hi in a minute, right now, I need you two to go to your rooms so I can talk to Uncle James in private.”

Hank and Christine hurried to their rooms, laughing and bumping into each other as they did so, “Booth, you seem extra…you. What’s up?”

Booth walked up to his friend, “what’s up is that you are a suspect in the kidnapping and murder of Jeffrey Hodgins.”

“What?”

Booth pointed a finger at him, “here’s what I know Aubrey. Three men, two Caucasians and a Black man abducted Jeffrey Hodgins and struggled with him by a bank a mile from the facility where he lived. Two of those men were agents, seen exiting the Hoover building, with you, on the night of the abduction.”

“Wait, what?” Aubrey sat down on a stool in the kitchen, “Booth…”

“I need answers now Aubrey, I trust you, but I need the truth and I need it now.”

Aubrey looked around the room as if someone might hear him, “I am on special assignment. There is a small faction in the bureau that has started to act suspicious and have been suspected of similar crimes. My assignment is to pretend to have other cases, but to dedicate my time and efforts to inserting myself into this faction and reporting all activities. That night, I left with agents Driscoll and Bingham, another agent assigned to bringing them down had alerted me they were up to something, I tried to get in on it, but they dropped me off after a few beers and said they were heading home.”

Booth stood still, his eyes still intensely focused on his friend and colleague, “I hope this is the truth. I trust you, but when you see things with your own eyes.”

Aubrey nodded, “I get it, it’s the same shit we went through with Zack Addy all over again. Look, the other Caucasian agent, I’m pretty sure is Agent Linn.”

“Michelle Linn?”

“Yeah, she’s pretty tight with those two and is suspected to be the de facto leader of the group.”

Booth rubbed his head, the weight of the day and the fact that his own fellow agents could have done this terrible crime were almost too much to take, “what do you know about her?”

Aubrey shrugged, “not much, honestly. Only Agent Su, the other agent assigned to it and Deputy Director Atkinson, and myself know she might be involved. Atkinson doesn’t know much about her, she came from the NSA and a lot of her files are redacted, we’ve been trying to find out more.”

“That figures, I knew her when she was in the NSA, she was investigating Hodgins for clearance to work on government cases, right after I started working with Bones and the squints. She would know everything about him. It wasn’t a normal investigation, I was the only one outside of the NSA to know she was investigating his activities for clearance.”

“Okay, that’s not good.”

“No, in the end, I nearly got her fired for her methods and attitude. What do we do now? You’re supposed to insert yourself in their world but there is no way she would trust you, she knows you are friends with me, and she knows I am friends with him.”

“I have to alert Deputy Director Atkinson…”

Booth held up a hand, “no, I don’t trust him. There is no way in hell that the deputy director of the FBI doesn’t know about his own agents, no way, it doesn’t matter who she worked for before. He gets you and Su involved, you trust him because you don’t trust her, so he gets full reports of all activity, making it easy for him to run things…”

Aubrey stood up, both hands on his head trying to make sense of everything, “Booth, you really think the Deputy Director could be running this?”

“I’ve seen it before. The Ghost Killer, that guy owned half of D.C. Right now, we can’t trust anyone out of our circle.”

“You trust Hodgins more than the deputy director? He’s a known conspiracy theorist…”

“He’s also saved both of our lives, he stepped up and took care of his brother on his own even though he barely knew him at a time in his life when his fortune was stolen from him. He doesn’t know I know this, but Angela was able to track it down, you know, his fortune, four point six million dollars.”

Aubrey coughed a little, “that’s a lot of money.”

Booth nodded, “yeah, but he didn’t want it, he wanted to be his own man, he made her donate it to charities that help cancer patients and finding a cure.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t….”

“It shows who he is and who he isn’t. He could have blown the door wide open on the NSA after the case with the Patriot, he found the thumb drive, but he chose to take the high road and let me choose what to do with it.”

“I didn’t know…”

Booth shook his head, “you shouldn’t have to, the squints are the ones we should know we can trust, they use science to guide them, not ego, which we know is not the case with leaders. We trust no one in the bureau, we handle this our way, with the help of the squints.”

Aubrey nodded, “I need a drink.”

BONES, ANGELA, and HODGINS

“Dr. Hodgins, can you swab for particulates now in the fractures to the larynx, I’m done examining it.”

Hodgins took a deep breath as he looked at what was now just the bones of his brother. Close or not, those bones were those of his closest relative, his own flesh and blood. Genetically speaking, no one would ever be closer to him than Jeffrey. “Yeah, of course.”

The sound of beeping startled each of them as they looked and saw Angela entering the platform, “Babe, are you okay to do this?”

Bones answered first, “Angela, Dr. Hodgins is professional and always does excellent work.”

“Brennan, I know, but this is his brother. This isn’t a normal examination, despite the fact that they weren’t what we would consider close, I know he loves his brother, as much as he loves the rest of his family, which is a lot.”

Hodgins reached out and squeezed her hand, “Angie, it’s okay. It sucks, for sure, but I can do this. This is how I can help him now and to keep the surviving members of my family safe.”

Angela sat on his lap, this was their way of having an intimate moment despite the difficulties of hugging and embracing with Hodgins being confined to a wheelchair. “I’m here for you, don’t forget that.”

Hodgins kissed her, then sighed, “believe me, I won’t. The last time I forgot that I almost sabotaged everything good in my life.”

Bones tilted her head, “Dr. Hodgins, your behavior was aggressive in nature and was out of anger, not a desire to ruin your life.”

Angela rolled her eyes and smiled at her husband, “honey, it’s a complicated psychological issue you might not understand.”

“Actually, I understand all psychology, it is a soft science and easy to understand, I simply don’t believe in much of it.”

Hodgins shook his head, “Got it Dr. B, my point was that I love Angie and I’m doing the best I can.”

“That’s the best anyone can do.” The three of them turned around to see Dr. Clark Edison swiping his card and walking onto the platform. “I came as soon as Dr. Brennan contacted me, I’m sorry for your loss Dr. Hodgins.”

“Thanks Clark, that means a lot coming from the king of lab professionalism.”

“Hey, I’ve gotten better.” He smiled and then looked at the bones before him, “Dr. Brennan, did you notice the slight discoloration of the scalene tubercle?”

Bones tilted her head to the side as she closely examined the rib in question, “very good Dr. Edison, I had not noticed that, yet. This would indicate further pain inflicted on the victim perimortem, I would postulate that this was done to try and control him after he struggled against them.”

Hodgins closed his eyes, “Jeffrey fought against them?”

“Yes, Booth reminded me that Jeffrey could be violent in his outbursts, and three men trying to take him against his will from the comfort of his home and routine would have caused a terrible reaction where his rage would be very difficult to control, and Booth thinks that Jeffrey caused them considerable harm as well.”

“I sure as hell hope so. I hate this shit so much, my parents caused him pain by locking him up and not letting family see him, they caused me pain by doing the same thing, this may be the only time Jeffrey caused someone true pain.”

“Where’s Booth?” Angela asked as she was typing on her tablet.

Hodgins looked at Bones who made a face before speaking, “he went to talk to agent Aubrey. He was with the assailants on the night of the attack?”

“What now?” Clark asked, raising his head from the bones as he spoke. “He’s on our side, right?.”

“I still believe that, there will be a reason.” Hodgins said, taking the hand of his shocked wife.

“He was acting on orders,” Booth entered the large room, everyone noticed immediately how fatigued he appeared. “Something isn’t right, we trust no one but squints, Aubrey, and myself. No one else gets any information.”

Hodgins squinted his eyes, “something tells me I don’t want to hear this.”

“Bug Boy, you’re not wrong. I think a deputy director might be involved, but we know agents are, for sure. I’m sorry for getting huffy before.”

Hodgins waved a dismissive hand, “hey, I’ve been a suspect and I hate it every time. It happens, we hate to be accused or have our friends and colleagues accused. I’ve been up and down and down and up with accusations against Zach, believing them, fighting them, it happens.”

“Where is Dr. Addy right now?” Clark asked as he was examining the patelas.

“He’s working for a think tank in California right now, it’s run by a reputable psychologist and he is surrounded by people who are scientific in nature, like himself, he’s quite happy from what I hear.”

“Bones is right, I have a friend who checks in on him now and then, he’s doing great.”

Hodgins laughed softly, “I wish the little guy was here right now.”

“I don’t see why, I think Dr. Edison and myself are doing a wonderful job.” Bones replied without looking up from her examination.

“Honey, again, I think he was talking in terms of having him here for support, not a slight against you and Clark.” Angela shook her head and patted Bones on the shoulder.

Clark nodded, “I’m good, I understood.”

Angela turned to face Booth, “Aubrey is clean then? I mean, I trust him, but we’ve seen way too much betrayal to never question things.”

“I agree, but he’s clean, I think I scared him, he was at our house watching our kids and I’m asking him if he was in on a plot against one of our own. Everyone, I mean everyone one needs to be careful, the agent who we believe is leading this little thing, whatever it is, she worked for the NSA and is not to be trusted and is capable of terrible things, as we’ve already witnessed. Aubrey was asked to infiltrate and report, but it could go way higher than a few rogue agents, as depressing as that may sound.”

Hodgins rolled back from where he was working and surveyed the area, “hey, thank you to everyone for coming out today, I appreciate it, a lot.”

Everyone replied with various phrases, all letting him know they were with him and glad to help out. Hodgins then excused himself to go to his office run the sample his took. Booth waited until everyone was back to work and discretely walked to Hodgins’ office.

“Hodgins, are you okay?” Booth had closed the door and proceeded to sit down in a chair by the door.

“Booth, yeah, of course, I mean, as well as I can be.”

“I just told you a former NSA agent was involved and three current FBI agents, I expected more, not that your current reaction is bad.”

“Look man, I hate it, but not trusting people, outside of our group, that’s not old, having the support of our group, you and Aubrey, Dr. B, these are my people, that’s everything.” Hodgins wheeled around in his chair, lightly hitting the chair, “this damn thing has taught me a thing or two Booth, as much as I hate to admit it. I had to learn that the only thing I have control of, and I mean the only thing, is me. When I was first paralyzed, I did my best to push away Angela and Michael Vincent, and my family is everything to me. All I can do now is work my ass off to prove their part in it and leave the rest to you.”

“Wow, I wasn’t expecting that, but I should have. You are a squint, in other words a genius, but good for you. I’m doing all I can.”

Hodgins wheeled himself directly in front of him, “Booth, I know, believe me, I do.”

Booth shook his head, “you’re not making me feel very good about myself, when the shoe’s been on the other foot, I’ve gone crazy.”

“Man, part of me wants to, believe me, but then I remember all the shit that happened when I got paralyzed, it nearly ruined my life and all because what was happening wasn’t what I wanted. It sucked, a lot, but me being crazed and angry hurt the few people on my side and didn’t do anything to punish those responsible.”

Booth put his hand over his mouth as he took a second to think, “whatever is making you this way, I need to learn it. It’s a lot better than turning to gambling or risking my life to get justice.”

“It’s way easier said than done, believe me. After you left, I was so fucking angry. I felt like I was being punished all over again, there was so much non-wheelchair me could do, then Angela talked to me, and cried, which does me in, but she reminded me I’m not alone and all I have to live for. We can’t let what we lose control us, I did well when I lost my fortune, because I never thought it defined me, but when I lost my legs…” Hodgins took a deep breath to keep his emotions under control, “that was terrifying because what I do, the mental, the physical, that was what I thought defined me, and to lose it, I couldn’t face it. It took time and driving Angie to the brink to see that everything that defined me and made me happy was still in my life, and this time, I have Jefferson as well, it was easier to not freak out because I already know where that leads.”

Booth stood up, “Hodgins, I never thought I’d say this, but you’re better at this than I am, and probably a better person.”

Hodgins quickly stopped him, “no man, you’re wrong. It has nothing to do with how good a person you are, it’s just how quickly you have to realize what’s truly important. It’s easy to lose sight of, but as I also learned, it’s easy to lose as well.”

“Well, keep me updated, I need to meet up with Agent Michaels and decide what to tell her and how much I trust her.”

ANGELA and HODGINS

An hour had passed since Booth left his office and Hodgins was going over all particulates and trying to make sense out of what the results meant. He was staring at the mass spectrometer when Angela slipped in his office and locked the door behind her.

“Hodgins, are you okay?”

He shook his head quickly to snap himself back to reality, “yeah, sorry, just trying to figure out what these results mean. There’s something there, but I haven’t figured it out yet.”

She walked up behind him and rubbed his shoulders, firmly, the way he liked it, “I can tell by your little moan that this feels good and by the way, you’re super tense.”

“This does feel amazing, but I’m good. Maybe better than I should be.”

“I was worried, ya’know, with you being shut up in here for so long.”

Hodgins craned his neck back to look up at her, “sorry, I was just in a stupor about the results. The soil isn’t from around here, but I don’t know if that tells me anything relevant about the case or the people, since we already know who they are.”

“You’re amazing.”

“Why, just because I’m not freaking out? I don’t know if that qualifies as amazing Angie.”

“You know I’ve forgiven you, right?”

“What?” He felt confused now.

“I know I was teary and begging you not to keep everything in, but sometimes I feel like you’re still overcompensating for what happened between us after you got paralyzed.”

“I don’t know that I’d call it overcompensating, but I’m very aware of how close I was to losing everything.”

Angela sat on his lap, her hands running freely through the curls in his hair, her lips finding his, both moving slowly, intensely. Angela pulled away slowly, smiling.

Hodgins grinned slightly, the he squinted at her, “why are you smiling so much?”

Angela surveyed the office to make sure it was closed up tightly, “I was just wondering if your wheelchair is up to a repeat of two nights ago?”

Hodgins laughed, “that was the first time we did any damage to the chair in a long time, but I reinforced it again. Michael Vincent helped, he just thinks I’ve been trying to take it down some stairs and it needed fixing.”

Angela stood up and leaned down to help Hodgins get his pants off, he sighed, “this is the part I hate, I feel useless.”

Angela gave a final tug and then proceeded to begin undressing herself, “listen, you could do it, but this is quicker and gives us more time for the good parts.”

He smiled at her, “part of me still wonders how a woman like you can put up with an angry cripple.”

Angela’s face immediately lost her smile, her eyes reflecting an anger inside, “don’t ever say that. Your legs don’t work, but you are not a cripple, and as for the angry part, that’s old news, it’s part of why I fell in love with you, I just had to look past the angry bluster.”

Angela then sat on his lap as one of his hands provided attention to one of her breasts while his other hand wandered down and immediately solicited a happy response. “I wouldn’t ever call anyone who knows their way around my body like you do a cripple.”

Hodgins didn’t respond as he was concentrating, which was nearly undone when his wife began to slowly grind on him. They continued like this for a few minutes with the only sounds in the office which had once belonged to Cam being the occasional grunts and groans of pleasure escaping from them. Angela then maneuvered herself so Hodgins could enter her, she braced herself using his chair and then she raised and lowered herself on him in a constant motion which picked up speed as it continued, ending with each of them doing their best to contain the volume of the approval.

Angela slumped back against Hodgins, his arms still wrapped around her, both of them breathing heavily. “I never imagined how good this would still be after I lost my legs.”

Angela reached back and caressed his neck, “I know, but it’s still super hot, right?”

Hodgins laughed a little, made difficult because he was still somewhat out of breath, “oh yeah, super hot.”

After they had caught their breath, Angela quickly helped Hodgins get dressed, then dress herself and she unlocked the door and sat on the couch, working on her touchpad, so that if anyone entered, they would assume they had been working the entire time. A mere five minutes after she had sat down, Bones entered the office after a light tapping on the door.

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

Angela stifled a smile as best she could, “of course not sweetie, what’s up?”

“Dr. Hodgins, what were the particulates you tested?”

Hodgins sighed, “it was dirt, heavy in carbon, which didn’t make sense, it didn’t match the carbon rich soil found by mines, it was different. I’ve been trying to figure it out.”

“What if the carbon was produced not by nature, like that by a mine, but one created by man, say by a plant that recycles and disposes of the carbon copies used by the FBI? 

Hodgins snapped his fingers, “that’s good,” he started typing furiously, “that matches, and there is only one place on the east coast that is cleared to do that, and it’s in DC. Nice job Dr. B.”

“Thank you Dr. Hodgins, I noticed more of these particulates, though very finite and undiscernible by the naked eye, they seemed different from normal soil particulates.”

AUBREY and BOOTH

“Why are we watching a recycling plant? Are we afraid the killers are going to do away with a large amount of paperwork?”

Booth glanced at his friend and sometimes partner, “No Aubrey, I think they, whoever they are, might use a room at the plant to meet and do whatever it is they do. It wouldn’t seem that weird for agents or a deputy director to be there, and employees who work at the plant sign a non-disclosure agreement, they cannot talk about anything they see. The workers here, if they see anything weird, they are conditioned to ignore and forget it.”

Aubrey was about to reply with a snide remark when he had to blink to make sure he was seeing what he thought he was seeing. “Booth, those squints did our job again, look who’s walking into the back of the plant together.”

Booth raised his binoculars to his eyes, “I hate when I’m right sometimes. What the hell could the deputy director of the FBI be cooking up with the guys? What do they want from Hodgins?”

Aubrey stared at the scene in front of them for a minute before slowly turning to face Booth, “okay, this might sound crazy, but what if they know, or he knows, what you know?”

Booth squinted, “That does sound crazy, but mainly because you used a bunch of words to say something that’s probably simple.”

Aubrey shook his head, “I mean, what if Director Atkinson found out or suspected that Hodgins found the thumbdrive with the findings of the patriot? Linn was NSA, it’s not too far a leap to make.”

Booth was silent with fear and his thoughts of the lengths that government agencies would go to have such information on their side. “We need to talk to Hodgins after this.”

Aubrey shrugged, “why not now? We can’t know what’s going on in there.”

Booth gave a small grin and pulled out his phone, he pressed a button and they had a visual of the deputy director with the three agents who killed Jeffrey Hodgins. As soon as I figured that out, I looked at the employees here, turns out, I had a friend on the inside. He placed everything for me.”

“You remember Sully, Bones’ ex, my old friend and partner?”

“The sandwich guy?”

“Not anymore, he lost his shirt in that place and they wouldn’t reinstate him as an agent because of his leaving so abruptly, they questioned his stability and mental state some, but they needed someone with a solid background to help run this place. He didn’t say anything because he was embarrassed, but it’s a blessing for us, be sure of that. Angela has a feed and is recording everything, let’s go talk to Hodgins now.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drastic measures are taken by Booth, Bones, and company to be on the offensive rather than the defensive.

BOOTH and HODGINS

The mass spectrometer was beeping at him, but Hodgins was thinking about his and Angela’s earlier fun in his office as Booth entered.

“Bug boy, turn that thing off. Why the big smile?”

Hodgins shook his head, “just thinking, I’m a lucky man.”

Booth shut the door, “I hope so, I have an uncomfortable question to ask you.”

Hodgins eyed him for a second, “yes.”

“Yes, I can ask it?”

“I said yes, as in yes, I still have it Booth, I’ve shared nothing, and I mean nothing, I’ve looked at nothing, but part of me…”

Booth exploded, “Hodgins, you told me you’d destroy it. Why keep it? This could get us killed!”

“I kept it in case there was an oversight committee that would be brave enough to look into the matter. I’ve never looked at it, I keep it in a safe place that only I know about. There’s no way they could know I have it.”

Booth frowned, “not if they got smart and looked at footage from the office where you took it from, they could take a very good guess. Why couldn’t you destroy it?”

Hodgins sighed, “because whatever is in there is damning enough that it could ruin careers. I don’t want agents hurt or riots, but if it stopped these government types who use information to destroy lives like the Ghost Killer did, I just couldn’t bring myself to destroy it.”

Booth remained silent for a moment, “I may not like it, but I understand.”

Hodgins did a double take, “you do?”

“Whatever was on there, it wasn’t good. After we brought Kovac down, he’d nearly killed the four of us, threatened many more and killed Max, I did a lot of thinking. I wouldn’t change what I did, I was a soldier, not following orders wasn’t an option, but I did what I did because I thought I was helping my country, but the more I thought about things, the more angry I became. Good soldiers are fodder and these politicians who make deals, like the Ghost Killer’s puppets did, they are the ones to blame. They know things about everyone and who to eliminate to get what they want and they use everyone as pawns in their sick game. I ultimately realized that the leaders responsible for those actions at the NSA are no different. They use events to allow them to increase their power and abuse it more, using the information they gain through their deceits as leverage to do as they please. It needs to stop.”

Hodgins had to take nearly thirty seconds to process what Booth had said, “okay, but how do we stop it?”

“First, we need to stop Atkinson and his crew, then we need to get the flashdrive in the right person’s hands, if it goes to an ambitious ladder climber, it does us no good, we need to make sure that whoever we give it to will use it to end this shit, for now. I love this country, I have taken lives and seen my friends give theirs, but we sure as hell didn’t do that for these men who lurk in the shadows and call the shots that shatter lives.”

Hodgins rubbed his head with both hands, “I thought my real conspiracy theory days were behind me, I have a family.”

“This isn’t theory Hodgins, this is real. We have to stop it, but we have to be careful so there isn’t collateral damage, our families can’t pay the price for the actions of these cowards who hide from scrutiny and consequences.”

Hodgins swallowed, “I’m in. Of course, I was already in, willing or not.”

Booth nodded slowly, “that’s how it is a lot of the time Bug Boy, I don’t choose this shit, it finds me.”

“I think we need to tell Angela and Dr. B, they’re too smart to be kept in the dark, and they need to know of the dangers that we could all face.”

Booth rubbed his neck slowly and tiredly, “I agree, I hate to do it, but you’re right, they’re too damn smart to not suspect something soon.”

“Now for the question I’m terrified to ask, how do we proceed with the thumbdrive and your pals from the FB of I?”

“They will know what the thumbdrive looks like, we need to get a copy, put fake information on it, and let them find that one, whoever they try to bribe will either give in or take them out for us. My biggest concern right now is who to trust.”

“What about Hacker? He’s second in command at Homeland Security now, but he seemed mostly trustworthy.”

Booth grimaced, “yeah, getting two of Bones’ exes involved in one case, that’s what I’ve always wanted.”

“Hey, I work with Wendell a lot, he and Angie dated, and Dr. B worked with Cam for how many years? It’s only uncomfortable if you let it be that way.”

“Okay, no more zen philosophy from you, but you may be right about him, he was always a straight shooter, he knew things, but he was discreet and too obvious to be a shadow government type.”

ANGELA and AUBREY

Angela and Aubrey stood in her office staring at new and improved Angelatron, the footage of the deputy director and his agents conspiring staring at them as proof of a conspiracy they didn’t want to believe.

“I still can’t believe deputy director Atkinson is in on this.”

Angela frowned, “you mean killing Jeffrey, my brother-in-law and threatening my family.”

“Yeah, it’s worse for you, but it’s still hard to believe, even with all the terrible things I’ve witnessed since I’ve started working with you geniuses.”

Angela zoomed in on one of the video feeds, “yeah, being agenius has its price, that struggle is real. I put in a search for Hodgins’ name and a command to collect data of words that are used in connection to his name from the footage we recorded, it’s not always as accurate as watching and rewatching the footage, but if I watch to much of that, I get the urge to take matters into my own hands…”

Angela stopped as box popped up on her giant screen, the name Hodgins appeared with a list of the most used words that accompanied it in their conversation, Angela saw the word flashdrive and felt a rush of anger. “I’ll be right back.”

Aubrey followed after her, “I better come along and protect Hodgins.”

Angela pounded on the locked office door, it was immediately unlocked by Booth, “what’s up, can’t two friends have a private conversation?”

Aubrey tried to cough the word “flashdrive,” Booth and Hodgins looked at each other, Angela’s face turned red, “okay you two, spill the beans. Now. I thought that thing was destroyed.”

Hodgins swallowed a few times, “that’s my fault.”

Angela’s eyes narrowed, “you kept something that could get us all killed.”

Booth beat Hodgins to an explanation, “they would have thought Hodgins had it anyways, it’s better that actually we have it. Had he destroyed it, they wouldn’t have believed him and would have killed a lot of people regardless, trust me. The type of people we are dealing with use information like currency, the more you have, the higher you go.”

Angela sat down, “my god, it’s like the Ghost Killer all over again.”

Hodgins wheeled himself next to his wife and took her hand, “Angie, it’ll be okay, we’ll be in control, I promise.”

“Bug Boy’s right Angela, I was pissed at first, but we can use this.”

“Use what?” Everyone else turned to see Bones standing behind them.

There was a brief silence, then Booth pointed quickly towards Hodgins, “Hodgins kept the Patriot’s flashdrive and now we’re all in danger.”

“Thanks a lot Booth!” Hodgins had to duck to avoid his wife from smacking his head.

“I never thought anyone should get rid of it, I always maintained that if they suspected it still existed, it would lead to us. This gives us leverage and an opportunity.”

Booth felt very confused by his wife’s attitude, “opportunity for what Bones?”

“Booth, I’m sure you feel the same way, it’s a chance to rid the government of a few more individuals who carry on the dangerous beliefs and practices of men like Hoover and Durant. Why do you seem so surprised by this? You know I despised the Ghost Killer and his tactics.”

Angela shoved Booth gently, “because he and Hodgins thought we’d be angry if we found out.”

“We had just decided to tell you, this all came about today. Well, I knew I had the flashdrive, but I never thought it was the reason they killed my brother.”

“Who they would have killed anyway, they would have never dreamed of wiping out such information and they don’t have the faith in mankind to imagine someone not using it as they would,” Booth said as Hodgins and Bones nodded.

ANGELA and HODGINS

The first part of their commute home had been quiet, but after they picked up Michael Vincent and Jefferson from the sitter, Angela’s thoughts couldn’t help but be about the safety of her family amidst the turmoil of yet another possible danger that threatened to tear her family apart.

“Dad, why can’t we see Uncle Jeffrey?” Michael Vincent had gone several times with his dad to visit his uncle who seemed distant but funny at times.

Hodgins winced, he wanted to cry and yell, but he couldn’t, he had to be calm, Angela watched him as composed himself, “buddy, uncle Jeffrey is, um, well, he’s gone buddy. He died.”

“That’s sad, right? I liked Uncle Jeffrey.”

Hodgins grinned as a few tears fell down his cheeks, “I liked him too buddy and it’s very sad, but we can be happy by remembering him.”

“Why did he die dad?”

Angela hoped her face didn’t betray the extreme worry she felt inside as Hodgins answered their oldest son again, “he was murdered by bad men bud, but uncle Booth is after them.”

“And you and mom too, right dad?”

Angela grinned slightly at Hodgins, “that’s right bud, mom and I are helping too.”

After dinner, the boys were in the play room while Hodgins cleared the table, Angela drank a glass of whine at the table, “you did good today.”

“With what, putting my family in danger?”

“Despite what I thought at first, that would have happened no matter what. I was talking about you answering Michael Vincent’s difficult questions. I was worried when he asked you how Jeffrey died, but I think the truth was the right way to go, and then you tried to make him feel safe. Well done.”

“I wish I felt better about it, it’s one thing to say it, it’s another to feel it. I have a life of conspiracy theories rattling around in my brain making feel even more paranoid.”

“I know, but like you told Michael Vincent, trust Booth.”

Hodgins sighed as he stopped loading the dishwasher, “I want to, but I’ve ben buried alive paralyzed from an explosion, and had my best friend work with a serial killer and cannibal, so my paranoia feels strangely justified.”

Angela stood up and walked to him, stood behind him and bent down and hugged him, “I know, but we are on to them. I’m actually glad you held on to that thumbdrive, it gives us actual leverage.”

“Yeah, but for how long. What if they come after us?”

Angela hugged him tighter, “I thought I was supposed to do the worrying.”

Hodgins reached behind him and gently caressed her face, “I always worry, I normally just shut up about it, but this is so real and fucked up.”

“I know.” Their conversation was then interrupted by a pounding on their front door. Hodgins wheeled himself quickly to the door and looked at the security camera, it was Aubrey, a very dirty Aubrey.

Hodgins opened the door, “Aubrey? Why do you look like a chimney sweep?”

“Thanks for that, but I was in the ventilation shaft by your front door, I had a feeling they’d act tonight, I didn’t want cameras, they know how to disable those, I saw someone drop this note.” Aubrey handed Hodgins an envelope addressed to him.

“You opened it?”

“Well yeah, I’m working this case to try and protect you guys. It says that they know you took the flashdrive and that they want it if you want your family to be safe. They said they’ll be watching and that they’ll give further instructions soon.”

“Come on in, get out of the hallway.” Aubrey and Hodgins entered the apartment and Hodgins locked the door, with three different dead bolts. “We need to get the letter to the Jeffersonian so we can find out as much about these bastards as possible.”

Aubrey shook his head, “not necessary, it was an agent by the name of Michelle Linn. She’s former NSA…”

“I know who she is. She was brutal on me when she did a background check a long ass time ago. She’s intense and I knew she was dirty then.”

“How so?”

“She tried to bribe me, she knew about rallies I’d been to, demonstrations I’d participated in and she told me that for a price, they’d go away. I don’t deal with people like that well, I told her to do her worst but to be prepared for a legal battle and I may have dropped the name of the three best lawyers in the country, who have all worked for my family before.”

“Well, she’s back, and kind of sloppy. She did have a media disrupter, or whatever they call it, but I had all devices off, just trusting my peepers thank you.”

Hodgins nodded, “so tell me, does this really go as high up as a deputy director, again?”

“Afraid so, but Booth is talking to his old boss who is a straight shooter and now works for Homeland Security.”

“Hacker, good. I suggested that, he reached out to me after Pelant drained my fortune.” Aubrey stared at Hodgins for a moment, “is there a problem Aubrey?”

“Um, no. But did you really have your fortune restored and gave it all to charity.”

Hodgins groaned, “seriously, our lives are at stake and this is what you think about?”

“It’s just, well, you know my story. I’ve been around people with money, new and old, and none of them would have done that.”

“Sorry? Not sure what answer you’re looking for.”

“No, you’re fine, it’s just, I can’t believe you would do that. I’ve kind of carried a grudge against wealthy people my entire life because of my dad.”

Hodgins nodded, “me too, but I used their money because that pissed them off too. I didn’t do it to be a hero, I did it because that money no longer defined me, I defined me, I made my own money, it was freeing, and it took me out of the shadow of my family that I’d lived in my entire life. The rich phonies think I’m not one of them anymore, and that’s perfect for me.”

Another pounding on the door made them each jump a little, Hodgins quickly wheeled himself around to the security screen, “now Booth? This can’t be good.”

Hodgins unlocked the deadbolts and opened the door, Booth walked in, “Aubrey, what are you doing here?”

“I suspected that Linn and her squad would act, and I was right.” He pointed to the letter Hodgins was holding up.

“Good, that plays into what I thought would happen. Now we need to go on the offense.”

“What?” Hodgins and Aubrey answered simultaneously.

“I’m pretty good at not being seen when I don’t want to be, sniper training, I will take the fight to their doorstep. We make them think someone else suspects them of having the thumbdrive.”

Hodgins grinned, “let them know how it feels. I like it.”

Booth smiled, “I knew you would Bug Boy, we’ve been through this enough to know how to do it and not be suspected or caught.”

Aubrey nodded, “nice Booth, can’t say I saw that coming.”

“Exactly why I think it will work, but I think we should all stay at the same place while this is going on, a place they won’t suspect or know about.”

“Bones bought an old furniture warehouse, just a half mile from here, it still had some stock in it and many display rooms still set up, we can more than suruvive with that and there is a working kitchen there. We will use the unmarked Jeffersonian trucks to and from there, the kids will stay there for the time being, but we need someone to watch them, someone we trust.”

“I think I have the perfect person.” The three men turned to see Angela smiling, which surprised all of them considering they were talking about hiding out.

“Who Angie?”

“Me, son.” Hodgins nearly jumped out of his skin as he saw Angela’s dad descend the stairs.

“What the..? How’d you…?” Hodgins felt both terrified and confused.

“Never mind that, but I’m here and I think hiding out there sounds perfect. You know how good I am with my grandkids, I’ll help out and I’m handy with a gun and I’ve terrified many a soul in my time here on earth.”

“That’s for sure.” Hodgins mumbled.

“Are you sure, sir? Booth had seen Angela’s dad but never spoken with him, and he was finally beginning to see why the others were scared of him, he had a presence about him, an eerie confidence.

“Hell yes, my family is everything to me and I’m here to make sure they’re safe, especially Hodgins, he’s suffered more than enough the past few years. Time to make a stand if you ask me.”

Hodgins nodded, “thanks dad.”

“You lost your fortune and your legs and you’re still going, that’s impressive, time for me to help out. What other security do we have on this warehouse?” Booth now found himself the focus of Angela’s dad’s sunglass stare that made him more uneasy than he thought possible by a civilian.

“I have a buddy from the Rangers, we served together for one deployment, he has a small security force that does specialty work, he takes care of stars and the paranoid rich, but he owes me. I let him off easy a while back, I did it because he’s a good guy, but it worked out for us. He has no love for the bureau or the NSA, they have tried to blackmail him into covert ops several times, that’s when I let him off, I don’t believe in forcing people against their will into service. He’s a good man who served his country. They will be camped out covertly on the roof, state of the art equipment, my guess is we won’t even know they’re there.”

“How is Brennan with all of this? Will she be okay with my dad watching Hank and Christine?”

Booth nodded, “she will. She actually brought up his name as a possibility. She hates hiding, you know Bones, but we feel that if we are the ones that surprise them, we have a chance of ending this sooner.”

Angela nodded, “okay, when do we have to be moved in?”

Booth grinned and grimaced simultaneously, “that’s the part you won’t love, I think tonight, buy midnight. That gives you five hours, the truck will be at the loading dock at midnight.”

ANGELA, BONES, BOOTH, and HODGINS

After frantically loading what they needed and trying not to forget anything important, Bones, Booth and their Children arrived at the warehouse in the back of a truck, Hank was laughing the entire time and tried to run around despite the efforts of his parents. As they unloaded, Christine giggled with glee as she saw Michael Vincent getting off of the other truck. The two families and Angela’s dad entered the warehouse together, as Bones had been promised, it was still well stocked with inventory and there were new sheets and mattresses to replace the used ones in the display rooms which were now their living quarters.

The building was an older brick building, two large glass doors in the front and steel garage loading doors in the back which would be used to load and unload the new inhabitants as the came to and from the Jeffersonian and wherever their war against the rogue agents would take them. Bags of cement had been placed in walls nearly up to the ceiling three bags deep to protect the inhabitants from possible gunfire. The children laughed when they saw one of the rooms had been set up as a playground, Michael Vincent and Christine played while their parents put the younger siblings back to bed.

An hour later, silence surrounded them like a thick fog, the children and Angela’s dad were sleeping, and the four parents sat uneasily with wine in their glasses when they heard a noise, Booth jumped up, his gun drawn, “take it easy Booth. I’m bringing the last of the citizens of our newly founded utopia here.” Aubrey had his hands up as he led in Clark and Fisher.”

Bones was not looking at them, “Aubrey, you clearly have no concept of what Sir Thomas Moore meant by Utopia, this is not close at all.”

“Bones, he was joking and brought in the rest of our guests here.”

Bones turned around, “Mr. Fisher?”

Fisher stopped to correct her, “Doctor.”

“Nobody cares Fisher, I have three doctorates and I don’t give a shit if I’m called mister.” Hodgins chided.

Aubrey sat down at the table, clearly exhausted, “Clark is part of the crew, he needed to be here, and Fisher came because he was sent an email and a letter telling him his services were needed, I think I found him right before they did. I reached out to all past regular interns from the last five years, Fisher was the only one they contacted, my guess is because he’s high profile because of his book about tutoring the president’s daughter. They sought leverage or information.”

“I would have sung like a canary, despite my gloomy disposition and belief that life is suffering, I don’t hold up well to torture.” Fisher sat down holding a bottle of French Absinth. 

Clark put his bags by his bed in the display room he would be sharing with Fisher and returned to the table. As he sat down, Booth stood up, “I’m not much for speeches, but we are the only ones who know about the full scope of what is happening here. An innocent man was murdered, a man who had never done anyone any harm, who was content in his own world. Why? Because corrupt politicians and bureaucrats wanted ill gotten private information to use for their own twisted political agendas. We can put a stop to that and hopefully do so without sacrificing our lives. This group gathered here has done so much more than the world will ever know to protect the unknowing. Thank you for being here and thank you for the various skills you bring to the table. We will need all of you at your best to pull this off. Hodgins.”

Booth sat down and Hodgins cleared his throat, “tomorrow, at the Jeffersonian, Angela and I will use a secure server from Turkey to send our first messages to the three agents and deputy director we know are involved. The computer there belongs to a hacker friend of mine who I gave the instructions to via pay phones. They will never find him, his own government hasn’t managed to. The message was written by Aubrey and Dr. Brennan to sound like someone who actually seeks money or power from the outcome of the thumbdrive and not like us. The demands require them to step out into public to communicate with my friend, when they are out, Booth, Aubrey, and Clark will bug everything. We will have eyes and ears on them and because the Jeffersonian is the best place in the world to work, we have prototypes that can withstand all current disruption programs. They won’t be able to detect them or stop them. Dr. Brennan.”

Bones stood up, “Because we know who is involved, we can get their DNA and when the bugging is done, retrieve personal belongings and place them with the body of Jeffrey Hodgins in a place that will see the body taken to the National Institute of Forensic Anthropology, and inspected by our own Dr. Wick. She will find the clues we’ve left her and track down the four guilty FBI agents.”

Bones sat down and Booth stood back up, “This is our plan, if you have questions or comments, make them heard now.” He waited as no one said anything. “Very well, let’s all get some sleep, if possible. We will need our wits about us. This is not impossible, but it’s not easy. We are going up against people with connections we don’t know about, people who have access to records we’ve never known existed, but at the end of the day, we are fighting for our families and what boils down to the true American way, not this perverse shit Hoover and Durant taught. To justice and the American way.”

“To justice and the American way,” the others repeated as their glasses clinked and were then drained. Hodgins and Angela were the first to leave the large table for their sleeping quarters, followed by the others until the silence once again filled the warehouse.


End file.
